Foreign fishing guides treading on locals' toes

Foreign anglers are running covert guiding operations on New Zealand rivers, says a South Island fishing guide.

Thomas White, a registered guide from Reefton, established a fly-fishing family guiding business five years ago, obtaining a Department of Conservation concession.

He said the number of tourists fishing Buller rivers had definitely increased. Foreigners now outnumbered New Zealand anglers on the West Coast.

Mostly American, British and European anglers fished New Zealand rivers, attracted by the big, healthy trout. Clandestine operations had consequently emerged from overseas, Mr White said.

Foreign guides were selling fishing and tramping tours in national parks to tourists. He had met such an operator from Idaho recently.

"It's done quite discreetly because everyone knows you're not supposed to do it."

The guides posed as recreational fishermen but were in fact running a business, he said.

"And they're not paying anything at all. They'll buy a New Zealand fishing licence, I hope, but nothing else."

DoC concessions restrict the number of tour operations on rivers, but Mr White said they were ineffective.

"At the moment there's a lot of people taking people fishing without concessions and that is causing a lot of problems."

People needed to be aware that "you can't just help yourselves to our rivers".

Mr White said he and many locals supported charging foreigners more to fish.

New Zealand fishing was cheap compared with overseas, he said.

Fish and Game wanted to charge tourists more for fishing rights but Conservation Minister Chris Carter had refused for fear that it might harm tourism.

Further south, near Queenstown, Fish and Game for the first time has put a limit on anglers allowed to fish there this summer, in the face of increasing tourist pressure on the Greenstone and Caples trout rivers.

Mr White believes catches on West Coast rivers should be limited.

Anglers are allowed to catch four fish on larger river systems and two in more sensitive areas. But he said four was far too many on the Coast, and the limit should be halved to bring it in line with Nelson's limit of two fish a day for each person.

Buller rivers were suffering from the impacts of tourism and dairying, said Mr White.

Anglers could still find good fishing on Buller rivers but the headwaters, in particular, needed much greater protection, he said.

But Fish and Game maintains that West Coast rivers are not under the same pressure as elsewhere.

Coast field officer Dean Kelly said rivers near Reefton were well-stocked and attracting increasing numbers of anglers.

The rivers did not warrant any regulation changes yet.

 

- NZPA